


Questions

by scheherazade



Category: Tenimyu RPF
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-24
Updated: 2017-07-24
Packaged: 2018-12-06 05:58:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11594355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scheherazade/pseuds/scheherazade
Summary: "Surprised you're not in the wedding party," Seiya remarks. "I thought you two were best friends."





	Questions

**Author's Note:**

> only god can judge me.

There's a no smoking sign posted on the balcony rail, next to some potted gardenias. Scattered in the potting soil are a half dozen cigarette butts. It can't be good for the plant. Then again, knowing better has never stopped people from doing stupid, senseless things.

The patio door creaks when it opens.

A voice says, "Seriously?"

"Got a problem?"

"What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"The fuck is wrong with _you?_ " 

The eye roll that elicits is practically audible, even over the sounds of the party coming from inside. Seiya walks over to the railing. 

When he holds out a hand, Shoutarou raises an eyebrow. Seiya just shrugs. His hand remains extended. Shoutarou offers him the cigarette.

Seiya doesn't take it. "Don't be stingy."

"Don't give other people shit about your own bad habits, then." Shoutarou tosses him the pack and lighter. 

The flame illuminates Seiya's face in a dull burst of gold, hollowed behind the curve of his hand. The lighter clicks off. Seiya tosses it back. He turns his back on a dubious view of the hotel gardens, elbows resting on the balcony rail. In the half dark, his sigh is a wisp of grey.

Shoutarou flicks ash over the railing. "Why'd you come out here?"

"Could ask you the same."

"I asked first."

"What are you, twelve?"

"Twenty-six, thanks."

"Not 'til next week, wonderkid. I know how old you are." Seiya shrugs, the motion sinking him into a steeper recline. His tie's been loosened, as if yanked by irritable fingers. The dinner jacket isn't in much better shape. "I got bored."

"What? Of all your admirers' stellar conversation?"

"Uttering words in a grammatically coherent fashion doesn't necessarily constitute conversation."

"No need to impress _me_."

"You're not impressed by anybody." Seiya takes a drag of his stolen cigarette. "So why'd you sneak out?"

"I got tired of uttering words."

"Didn't like the look of any of the bridesmaids?"

"Not really my style."

"Nor the groomsmen?"

"Like I said."

"Surprised you're not in the wedding party," Seiya remarks. "I thought you two were best friends."

"I didn't know you two even _were_ friends." 

"We're all friends."

"You keep using that word—"

"And you don't think it means what I think it means?" Seiya sounds far too smug. Shoutarou doesn't even bothering rolling his eyes. Seiya says, "The bride invited me."

"What?"

"Surprised?" 

"That you've had contact with a female member of our species? Yeah, I'll say."

"Shut the fuck up. I have plenty of friends who are women."

"Easier to be friends with people you haven't slept with, huh?"

Seiya flips him off. Shoutaoru smokes his cigarette. 

"Half the people in there," Seiya says after a bit. "It's been so long, I don't even recognize most of them."

"A lot of them are school friends. Kouzuki, the tall one? College baseball team."

"The one he had a crush on?"

"You didn't hear it from me."

"Didn't need to, when it's so damn obvious. I mean, Jinnai's about the most transparent person I know, and I know some people. Then again, that's about the only reason I believe he actually wants to marry Fumiko-san, and it's not just some sort of cover up. I did wonder, for a hot second."

"What are you, her knight in shining armor?"

"Chivalry is just a fancy word men use to make themselves feel better."

"Tell me about it, girlfriend."

"You joining our team?"

"I'm not really a team player."

Seiya snorts. "Is that why you're not in the wedding party? Aniki kicked you off the team for having a poor attitude?" 

"He's not actually my brother, jackass."

"I was talking about the his actual brother, doofus."

Shoutarou stubs out the cigarette with his heel. It leaves a faint scorch mark on the brick. He tosses the evidence into the potted gardenia. 

Seiya says, "Did you two have a fight or something?"

"Of course not."

"I was talking to Kenta, and he seemed worried about you."

"So that's why you came out here. Buchou's orders."

"And I wanted a smoke."

"Moocher."

"Scrooge."

Shoutarou shakes two cigarettes out of the box. "What did Kenta say?" 

"Not much." Seiya lights the second cigarette from the embers of the first. "Just told me to be nice to you."

"Solid advice."

"It's called a guilt trip. Asked if I'd seen you, since you've been down and avoiding him and Jinnai all day like you've done for weeks."

"That's a lie." It'd been months, probably. "I've been busy."

"So's Kenta, and he's had to help out with the wedding on top of actual work."

"Yeah, well, apparently he's not as busy as he seems."

A pause. 

"Did you have a fight with the both of them or something?" Seiya asks. "There's no way you're so busy you don't even have time to stuff some wedding invitations and go to a bachelor party."

"He didn't have a bachelor party. He's the gross committed type who doesn't believe in doing anything that might offend his dearly beloved's delicate sensibilities."

"Jealous?"

"Of what?"

"That's the question," Seiya says, so quietly that Shoutarou almost doesn't hear it, might never have have expected it, if not for the voice in his own head asking the same.

 _Aren't you going to congratulate me?_ Sho had grinned at him, half-smirking, half-quizzical. Head cocked as if he really didn't know, while the cant of his shoulders said he was finally, perfectly at ease—making this leap of faith, and sharing the good news with one of his closest friends. 

It shouldn't have taken the effort it did to summon a smile, sock him in the arm and say, _About time! Enjoy your last days of freedom, old man._

He's not sure what's worse: the way Sho laughed at the joke, or the way Kenta looked at him him the next time they saw each other. Like sympathy is something Shoutarou needs. Like there's anything more to it than the fact that his career's finally taking off and he barely has time to sleep, much less block out a whole weekend for groomsman duties.

_But you'll be there, right?_

Again, a question that Sho already knows the answer to. He likes to ask these things anyway, just so his friends can laugh and say yes. 

_You better have an open bar, that's all I'm saying._

Shoutarou likes to hear his friends laugh, too.

Seiya says, "Matrimony's overrated." He flicks his cigarette butt over the railing, ignoring the potted plant right at his feet. Then again, who's to say which is worse. "I get that weddings tend to make people start to question everything, but honestly, we're not old enough to be worrying about that kind of shit."

"Says the person headed straight for his late-twenties, and after that, who knows?"

"Shut the fuck up," Seiya says, like he always does. There's no heat behind the words. "Unlike you, I have no problem with admitting my age."

"Which is why you told Kouzuki you're twenty-two?"

Shoutarou snickers at the dirty look Seiya shoots him.

"He was a little too into it, if you ask me," Seiya says with fake disinterest. He pushes away from the railing, straightens his tie. "There's flattery, and then there's just outright creepy."

"A line you tread with such finesse."

"Damn straight." 

"Interesting word choice."

"Is it?" The way Seiya is smirking makes Shoutarou suspicious. "Can't help but notice you didn't object to my comment earlier."

"You make so many, it's hard to object to them all."

"About the groomsmen."

"What about them?"

"That they're as relevant to your interests as the bridesmaids are. Theoretically speaking."

His cigarette has burned down, the last ember disintegrating into ash.

Seiya smooths his tie, watching him. 

Shoutarou flicks his cigarette over the railing. "Theory's not the same thing as practice."

"Mm. And practice makes perfect."

Shoutarou laughs, despite himself, and Seiya's smirk curves into a grin. 

"Come to the bar and buy me a drink," Seiya says.

Shoutarou opens the balcony door for him with a sweeping bow. "As you wish."


End file.
